The Yankees announced today that right-hander Mark Leiter Jr. has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a left fibular head stress fracture. No timeline for his absence has been provided. Righty Clayton Beeter has been recalled in a corresponding move.
Leiter told reporters, including Max Goodman of NJ Advance Media, that he suffered the injury while covering first base in a game against the Reds on June 24th. As seen in this video from MLB.com, Leiter was racing Elly De La Cruz to first and landed a bit awkwardly around the bag. Remarkably, he stayed in the game at that point and has also made four appearances since suffering that fracture.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, his results have taken a step back since he’s been pitching through the injury. After De La Cruz was safe at first, he then allowed a single, uncorked a wild pitch, issued a walk and allowed another single, taking the loss in that game. In the four subsequent outings, he allowed five earned runs in 2 1/3 innings.
Prior to the injury, his results were quite strong. Going into that game where he suffered the fracture, he had a 3.48 earned run average in 31 innings. His 32.1% strikeout rate, 6.6% walk rate and 50.6% ground ball rate were all well above average. He recorded two saves and ten holds out of Aaron Boone’s bullpen.
Losing that arm is another blow for the Yankee staff. He is now the eighth pitcher on the club’s IL. The starting staff is without Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil, Clarke Schmidt and Ryan Yarbrough, while the bullpen is down Leiter, Jake Cousins, Fernando Cruz and Yerry De los Santos.
Understandably, as the bodies have been piling up, the club has hit a rough skid. They were victorious in Sunday’s game against the Mets, which snapped a six-game losing streak. Four of those six losses came against the surging Blue Jays, who took over first place in the American League East in the process.
As mentioned, it’s unclear how long Leiter should be down. Since he was able to pitch through the injury, perhaps he will only require a minimum stint on the IL. However, all contending clubs look for bullpen upgrades at the deadline and the recent spate of injuries suffered by the Yankees should only increase their urgency in that department.
Photo courtesy of Sam Greene, Imagn Images
When it rains it pours. This pitching staff is hanging on by a thread
The offense hasn’t shown me much lately. Stanton coming back was a mistake. The offense is worse now. The offense is better without Stanton more contact, hitting, and more athletic on the bases.
Stanton always takes a while to get going when he first comes back from injury. They just have to hope he figures it out sooner than later. I could see benching Stanton more often if Goldy wasn’t in a brutal slump as well but that’s the situation we’re in. Stanton isn’t really taking at bats from anyone more deserving at the moment
Ben rice
Rice is seeing more time at C since Wells is ice cold. You can start to see how the lineup problem extends far beyond Stanton
I don’t understand how he hurt his head. From the video, there didn’t seem to be any contact between de la Cruz and Leiter, or any contact to Leiter’s head.
It’s the head of his fibula, a bone in the lower leg.
I misread that as well.
Ouch.
Offense needs to pick up the slack while the pitching takes a beating…
Sounds like a phantom IL placement injury
I guess he won’t be lighting it up anytime soon. That guy has burned more games than Volpe’s errors.
Feel badly for him but looking forward to not seeing him give up leads!
EXACTLY
Just another fibular head stress fracture
Really gonna miss his 4.50 ERA out of the bullpen in close games
Yankee fans, you got your wish: Leiter is gone til September.
In the four subsequent outings, he allowed five earned runs in 2 1/3 innings.
Since he was able to pitch through the injury, perhaps he will only require a minimum stint on the IL.
Um. OK.
Ouch.. ( on the injury). Know the pain of that injury all too well. Surprised the training staff didn’t pick up on it.
Next Man Up in the Pen. ( Guys might last longer if Boone didn’t get guys up throwing.. then sit them down.. only to get them UP.. again .. and either send them in.. or sit them down ..).. Not good for a Pitcher’s health..
If the injury occurred on 6/24, why was it not diagnosed through x-ray or MRI at that time?
With the loss of Schmidt, I think the Yanks can find some decent arms down there in Texas who desperately are in need of bats. Maybe some arrangements can be negotiated since the Rangers are no longer considered playoff contenders anymore.
Bring back TONK, Trashman!